My Terrible, Horrible, No Good Very Blessed Day

Yesterday was a day that will live on in infamy, or at least in the top ten of my not favorite days of 2026. It all began as my wife, the family bookkeeper, started up the laptop to check our checking account yesterday, when lo and behold she discovered that we were overdrawn by $600! Now we run a pretty tight ship around here (my kids call me cheap). So this came as a shock. No, we had not spoken to anyone on the phone, clicked any bad links or been hacked by the CIA. Instead, three unexplained checks showed in the account, made out to folks we had never heard of. Immediately I fired up the Di lithium crystals and put the car into warp drive and headed for the bank. There we discovered that a forger had written three checks for several thousand dollars, totally wiping us out. The remainder of the day we spent filling out reports at the bank for their fraud division and then again at the sheriff’s office to report the crime. By dinner time, I had no ambition to cook anything complicated, and my wife’s diet calls for no evening meal at all. To simplify things, I simply broke out the skillet, and determined to have eggs, sausage and an English muffin. Yes, I still remembered that God works all things together for good, but at the moment, I needed something more than hearing that truth quoted to me. Imagine my surprise when I opened the egg carton and saw a Bible verse on the inside lid.

This is the day the Lord has made, we will rejoice and be glad in it! Psalm 118:24 NKJV

Though He doesn’t do it all the time, I have been amazed and blessed to discover the many occasions when God drops a line of Holy Scripture on my path, just when I need it most. Though someone could have given me a well-deserved a lecture on thankfulness or sermonized on the reality that in this world we will have tribulation. But God chose a gentler approach to soften my heart and attitude and turned my terrible, horrible, no-good day, into a wonderfully blessed one and a time I will remember His gentle correction and care for years to come. Isn’t God amazing? I hope that whatever your circumstances, that He may come alongside of you today with His word and bring light in the darkness, calm in the storm and rejoicing in this day that He has made!

What Day is Today?

One of the favorite things our friends at Life Care Center love to do during worship is to lift up their hands in praise. Baptists, Catholics and Presbyterians are all joining in to lift those hands up in the name of Jesus. We who live in the comfort of our own homes, have a lot to learn about worship from them. We can just jump in our car to go to church but sometimes might rather sleep in or go to the beach. But they push only get around in wheelchairs, they eagerly push themselves up the hall and with big smiles on their faces join us for the Friday service. Why not join in with us? Let’s give God thanks for today and lift up your hands in His name!

My Christmas Message

So it was, that while they were there, the days were completed for her to be delivered.  Luke 2:6 NKJV

Though God had spoken to them both and they understood that this child that Mary carried in her womb was a miracle, Mary and Joseph, didn’t know what day He would arrive. If they had, don’t you think they would have left a week earlier! In the same way, God often chooses times and methods that we do not expect or understand, and yet through all those days we can trust that every day is the day that the Lord has made…. we can rejoice and be glad in it. (Psalm 118:24). Today’s video is the massage that the Holy Spirit has put on my heart for this Christmas, and I pray that it might be a tool of His to minister His grace to your hearts, no matter what you are facing this year.